Monday, April 4, 2011

The process - tutorial part 2

Since Friday where we left off from this tutorial, I added the two rows of logs and decided to add another round of white rather than ending with the striped fabric on the outside. I sewed on the first two logs (I had cut the fabric wide - about 6"), but then the block was getting so big that the white kona strip would not be long enough on the third side. AH! A design opportunity! I just cut the kona strip and inserted a piece of the center fabric. I only put the white on three sides. I was figuring that once I cut the block into quarters that I didn't want to have a lot of extra white between the quarters to cut off.

Here I took the block and folded roughly in half. I used the edges of the center piece as my guide. Since my outside border is only on three sides I don't want to use that as a guide for folding the block. After folding I finger pressed the fold. This will give me a glide line for slicing the block. I am not concerned that I cut perfectly on this line. I just wanted a guide so that I end with the block cut into four similar sized pieces.

Here you can just see the finger pressed line that I will use as a guide for cutting the block in half.

The block cut in half.

One of the halves folded in half and I finger pressed a line as a guide for cutting.

Here is one of the two halves sliced into two pieces. Next let's put them on the design wall.

The blocks arranged on the wall. I really didn't have to fuss too much with this step. I like pretty much where I had put them the first time. I only changed how far the blocks were from each other. I did change the orientation of the blocks 90 degrees in the next picture.

I added some of the scraps at the bottom. The piece was measuring about 40" wide by 43" long. I didn't want a square quilt. I sewed together the scraps and sewed them to the bottom of the lower blocks.

Here you can see that I will need to add some fabric to the left side of the upper right block in order to place the block where I want it. This is just what happens in this type of piecing. It was not unexpected - just part of the process.

After I sewed a piece of kona to the left side of the upper block I layed it back up on the wall. In order to know where to cut the fabric for joining the lower block to the upper block when moving the blocks from the wall to the cutting table, I used a blue water soluable maker to make some tick marks. Otherwise I would be a real guess for placement. Here you can see the marks I made. I moved the upper block 1/2" away from the blue markings to add for seam allowance. I cut the fabric at the edge of the upper block and just removed the extra white fabric on the lower block.

The last seam will be joining the left and right sections together. After that I will go ahead and square it up then I will be ready to show how I get the quilt ready for quilting.

Glen, When I made the first improv quilt and went to slice up the first block, I got a kick out of seeing the look on my friend's face when I went to slice it up. Yes, there was a look of horror, but it didn't bother me at all. By now I am use to cutting these blocks up and having the fun of rearranging them, adding, and subtracting. Make sure you let me know when you make yours - I would love to see it!